Star Crossed Lovers
by Tar Irene
Summary: Mai knew their love was doomed, knew Zuko could not succeed and knew he could not come back to her. But the more impossible their future seemed, the more in love with him she fell. maiko one-shots
1. Love Letters

A/N: Like a lot of people (although I suspect not too many Maiko shippers), I thought their relationship came out of nowhere. At the beginning of Book 3, I thought the lovey-dovey sequences between them were literally "daydreams" (come on, it was in the title of the episode) and not real. And in the Boiling Rock when Mai defied the princess, my mouth hung open and I was like, where did THAT come from? This fic is an attempt to show real Maiko love and although it's a bit self-indulgent and the concept has certainly been done before, I hope you'll have patience and even enjoy reading it.

This first bit takes place sometime during Zuko's banishment. There will be other brief one-shots but they're more constrained by canon. This one is my favorite.

* * *

They wrote love letters. She suspected that she was the only one from his past life he wrote to, and the thought warmed her. Azula would have mentioned it if his family had received any news from him, just to see how Mai would react. It wasn't easy, sneaking them past Azula's notice - Mai and Ty Lee were with the princess every minute while at the royal academy, and even vacations were spent at her side. It wasn't that Mai resented that - she had nothing better to do, and Agni forbid she have to spend vacations with her parents and worst of all, an infant brother - but it made it difficult to sneak correspondence past her.

Azula had long since lost interest in playing with knives - it was because she lacked the skill that Mai had, but no one ever said so aloud - and so Mai's time spent on the practice fields with her stilettos gave her a chance to sneak a parchment and a few coins to a servant for quiet delivery to the messenger hawk aviary. For obvious reasons, she wasn't keen for anyone to know the letters were meant for him. A soldier serving Mai's family would pretend to mail them via a fire navy communication tower to his brother, who served on the exile's ship. The soldier would receive the reply and disguise it with her own family's seal before passing it on to the academy. Mai managed to sneak the man coins any time she was home, and she was as generous as she could afford to be. Death threats were probably sufficient to ensure he never read them, but Mai didn't want to take any chances. She wondered when someone would find it suspicious that simple soldiers were exchanging letters, but she couldn't do anything about that.

And so the more impossible their future seemed, the more in love with him she fell. Oh yes, they had had crushes on each other since she was 9, but Mai cynically thought that they would have grown out of it had it not been for the banishment. All Mai remembered from that terrible day was that it had sharpened her feelings and brought her a crystal clarity - she loved him. She was only 12, but she knew she loved him. She ached for him and slowly grew accustomed to the knowledge that if he came back, he would not be the same shy and awkward boy she'd had a crush on. Every month he spent on that idiotic mission hardened him, and even though he said nothing, the letters began to reveal a coldness and distance that grew a life of its own. He was growing up, and he was doing it in the worst possible way and doing it so far away from her. She felt herself growing colder, harder in response. She knew she would never want anyone else. They could take this, and whatever else life threw at them. They loved each other.

After the banishment, she had managed to continue on with her life as if nothing was wrong. Her daily routine was not so demanding that keeping the mask in place was that difficult. Azula had never asked what Mai thought about his banishment. Ty Lee had commented once, right after, that Mai's aura was blacker than ever, but Mai glared at her hard enough that she had shut up. Mai thought her aura probably lightened every time she received a letter, but thankfully, Ty Lee was loyal enough not to ask, after that first time.

Mai still remembered when she'd received the first one. Thinking it was nothing more than boring correspondence from her mother reminding her of her duty to her family or stupid news of her baby brother, she waited weeks to open it. Eventually she'd been reminded of it by accidentally knocking it off her desk from under the other piles of stuff she was ignoring - schoolwork, mostly. She'd been lucky that Azula was absent from the academy to visit her father at the time.

The letter didn't say who it was really from, but at the very first character, she knew. "I miss you." It hadn't said much - he wasn't a wordy person, and after all, they had never really declared themselves. She'd given him a small, heart-shaped lava rock in place of having to find words, and they'd shared a brief, chaste kiss. Moments when Azula was not around were fleeting, and only a few months later, he was gone.

She had replied immediately. "I love you." They only managed to exchange about four letters a year, but she treasured every word.

He would never discuss where he was or how his search was going. He would never mention how his scar was feeling or whether he was healing, physically or emotionally. Instead, he would wax philosophical about honor, duty, and love, and then admit, his frustration seeping through the characters on the parchment, that he knew nothing about any of it. He would describe how his uncle's firebending lessons were progressing, and then admit to her with angry strokes that he had lost his temper, over and over again. But the best part was when the ink grew soft on the page and he told her how everything he saw reminded him of her: in the dark ocean during the long nights, he would see her hair. In the sun's reflection at dawn, he would see her eyes. And in every letter - even the very last one she would receive - he would swear to return quickly with the Avatar and claim his rightful place at his father's side. No matter how hard life got or how hopeless his quest seemed, he never forgot to promise her this: he would come back for her...


	2. Reunion

A/N: The second question I have to tackle is, if they were so in love, why does it take Azula tricking them to go to dinner in order for them to get together in the comic "Going Home Again"? This is my attempt at explaining that distance, and although I don't like it nearly as much as the first bit, because so much of this one is straight from the show and not my head, I still thought I'd share.

* * *

It had been over six months. Not that she was counting. And things in her own life were getting worse. Her best friend Ty Lee deserted her, Azula grew more irritable every day, and then to top it off, her parents saw fit to turn her world upside-down and drag her off to some Earth Kingdom colony they were supposed to be in charge of now. No, she was not happy about any of that. But it paled in comparison to the tight feeling in her chest she got whenever she thought about the letters. Or their absence.

Mai couldn't know, of course, that by that point he had not only lost his ship and crew and thus all means of communication with the Fire Nation, but had also been sentenced to death by his father. She only knew that she hadn't heard from him, and that this Earth Kingdom colony was unbearable. She blamed these feelings for the fact that she so easily fell in with Azula's demands before she even knew what they were. Once she found out, she wasn't sure what to think - they were supposed to drag him back to his father in chains? Oh yes, as Ty Lee had guessed, she would be happy enough to see him again. She missed him desperately. But bringing him home as a prisoner? A dull feeling settled in her stomach as she wondered how she would react when Azula caught up to him. She must do whatever Azula said, of course. And yet how could she betray him?

Later on, she would admit that following Azula was a lot of fun. Running around in her crazy tank machines (where had Azula come up with those, anyway? Mai had never seen anything like them), fighting off those stupid Water Tribe peasants, dueling with warriors who fought with silly fans - of all things! She'd take knives any day - and taking over the giant Earth Kingdom city from the inside. Mai had been born for that kind of stuff.

And when they finally did catch up with him, it was entirely anti-climatic. Mai and Ty Lee were stuck babysitting the stupid Earth King and his even stupider pet bear (whatever the heck a bear was), while Azula had all the fun. A battle had apparently raged hot down in the catacombs, but of course Mai saw none of it. She viciously hated that bear for it. And in the end, it turned out - and she was almost disappointed - that Azula preferred to convert her brother back to their side, and Mai wouldn't even have to make a choice. It might, Mai mused unhappily, be the most boring ending to the story possible. Just what she deserved.

It was even worse when she saw him. He was standing alone in the throne room, Azula having left to - well, do something devilish, Mai was sure. His shoulders were slumped and his hair was short and messy. She could only see his back from where she was standing. He was taller, a lot taller than last time she'd seen him - she could tell even though he was slumping. Suddenly too shy to approach or say anything, Mai swallowed. Everything that had passed between them now seemed unbearably awkward. The distance between them seemed impossible, even though they were in closer physical proximity than they had been anytime in the last three years. Even without the weight of Azula's disapproval hanging over her, she didn't know how to do this. Her eyes fixed on the ground, she turned and walked away.

* * *

[A/N: If they got together just as the aforementioned comic describes (see scans-daily [dot] dreamwidth [dot] org [slash] 2090336 [dot] html), I couldn't resist wondering why Azula wants them together and wants Zuko home. I'm sure Zuko wondered that too. This second scene takes place on the ship from Ba Sing Se back to the Fire Nation capital, somewhere around the other maiko scenes in "The Awakening".]

His jaw was hard. "Azula only wants me home so I can serve her." His knuckles were white, fists closing on the shiprail until it hurt. "She wants me to know I'll never be able to challenge her. I know she didn't give me the chance to join her to see me come back as father's heir."

Mai was silent. She knew all this. She'd accepted it already. She placed her hand on his, and wondered when Zuko would accept it.

"Can I do it?" he wondered in a rare moment of voiced self-doubt. Mai didn't know whether he was questioning his ability to follow Azula, or his ability to challenge her. Her hand tightened around his. She didn't want to know.


	3. Rescue in the Night

A/N:

Because it's hard for a Maiko fan to understand why the new Fire Lord didn't immediately storm to the boiling rock and demand Mai's release, if he knew she was in prison.

_

* * *

Mai: You need some help with that?_

_Zuko: Mai! You're ok. They let you out of prison?_

_Mai: My uncle pulled some strings. And it doesn't hurt when the new Fire Lord is your boyfriend._

* * *

_The night before..._

* * *

Her breath was short and coming out in puffs as she hurried to keep up with the guard, who still acted as though something shady was going on. "Wait," Mai managed to gasp out, "What is going on?"

He didn't reply, didn't pause to glance back at her as he hurried down the dark hallway. She fell quiet, but her frustration lingered. The guard had shown up uninvited in her cell, announced without preliminaries that he was smuggling her out, and had flatly refused to say anything else. Worse, she was out of breath simply trying to keep up with him. Prison hadn't done her physical condition any favors.

Without warning, he stopped, whirled around, grabbed her arm, and dragged her under a stairwell to hide in the shadows. She bit back her impatient questions as she heard footsteps approaching. A trio of soldiers were approaching, she guessed, counting the footsteps. She halted her breathing and flattened herself into the shadows, going completely still. The guard beside her did the same. She closed her eyes and did not open them again until the marching grew quiet in the distance. Heart racing, she followed as the guard leapt back into the hallway and continued to lead her down the silent halls of the prison.

After what seemed an eternity of rushing down dark halls and dodging shadows, he opened a door that led - miraculously - outside. It appeared to Mai to be the middle of the night. Mai caught a glimpse of tall walls of rock on either side before she was unceremoniously handed - more like shoved, she thought uncharitably - into a waiting carriage. She had no time to protest or ask more questions as the door slammed behind her, someone shouted something at the animals hitched to the carriage, and she shot forward into the night.

It took her a few seconds to regain her bearings.

There was someone else in the carriage with her - dressed in a Fire Nation soldier's uniform. She thought she recognized him from somewhere, but wasn't sure. Mai recovered her composure and glared at him. She was not happy about being pushed and shoved around without being provided any answers. "What is going on?" she asked in a low, deadly tone of voice.

"Lady Mai." The soldier made as respectful an obeisance as possible while seated on the carriage seat opposite her. "I am Py. Your uncle sent me to get you. I have served under him for a long time, and he entrusted me with escorting you to the capital."

Mai's features froze. "My uncle?" It was not what she had been expecting, she admitted to herself. She had been waiting for someone else to come rescue her. _What a silly fool you are,_ she berated herself. _Of course he wasn't going to come rescue you, not after abandoning you in the first place!_

The soldier nodded, his own face serious. "He had to call in a lot of debts," he explained. "No one is quite sure where anyone's loyalties lie right now, and freeing prisoners is very tricky business - especially prisoners sentenced by the Princess herself. It's not clear that anyone has the authority to second guess her orders, even now."

Mai tried to breathe evenly, but it was hard - her thoughts were in an uproar. Her uncle had staged an escape for her right from under Azula's nose? That was - insane. She had no idea he would risk everything like that for her, a red-handed traitor...

"My _uncle_ did this? How?" Her voice was several octaves too high. She clenched her teeth together and strove to get herself under control.

"The warden of this prison," Py gestured behind him, in the direction they'd come from, "apparently owes him a favor from a long time ago. But he had to be quiet about it or risk his own career. Hence the abruptness of it all," he said, apologizing obliquely.

Mai drew in a stunned breath. "Favors owed from a long time ago cover defying Princess Azula?" she asked, her voice weak with disbelief.

The soldier blinked, and then nodded sharply in sudden understanding. "That's right, you wouldn't have heard. The princess, er... her coronation was interrupted by her brother. Supposedly, he challenged her to an Agni Kai for the throne." He stopped, and licked his lips nervously. Mai leaned forward unconsciously, heart beating fast, hanging on every word.

"No one really knows what happened, but Azula was suddenly gone and the Fire Sages have announced the coronation of Fire Lord Zuko instead..." Py trailed off, as if he was not quite sure of his next words. "And apparently, the warden was convinced by your uncle that you and the Fire Lord are... dating?" His inflection made it clear that the soldier personally doubted the truth of that statement, but didn't quite dare ask.

Across from him, a wide smile stole over Mai's face. Now it all made sense. Favors owed from a long time ago might cover secretly setting the new Fire Lord's girlfriend free. Zuko _had_ rescued her, after all.


End file.
